At the TCA press tour, Glen Mazarra explains why the Fall of Atlanta didn't kick off the second season.

Earlier this month, "Being Human" star Sam Witwer went off on AMC, both for the way it dismissed Frank Darabont from "The Walking Dead" and for shelving Darabont's originally planed season two premiere; which would have chronicled the Fall of Atlanta during the early days of the zombie apocalypse. To set up that story, Witwer had even appeared in "The Walking Dead" pilot as the zombie whom Rick killed in the tank.

At the Television Critics Association winter press tour, current "Walking Dead' showrunner Glen Mazarra confirmed that Darabont's idea for the premiere was heavily discussed by the writers and producers before it was rejected.

“The story was one we discussed internally; that was Frank’s pitch and it was one of many ideas examined in the writers’ room,” said Mazarra. “It just felt like a stall and we wanted to get to our characters. We have a lot of ideas like that… That was not something that was rejected by another party. That’s not accurate.”

Aside from that, the biggest news to emerge from the panel was that the third season of "The Walking Dead' has been expanded to 16 episodes; which will presumably be split into two just as the second season was. "Walking Dead" creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman also denied earlier reports that fan favorite character Michonne will make her long awaited debut before the end of the second season.

"That's a character we definitely want to work into at some point in the future," mentioned Kirkman. "Whether or not it happens this season, I don't really know."

To promote the second half of the season, AMC has released a new "Walking Dead' poster featuring Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes.

The next new episode "The Walking Dead" will debut on Sunday, February 12; only on AMC.